Socializing is Dangerous
Seeking some solace -- or perhaps just solitude, away from solicitous friends who want to check on her well-being -- Nautica has found herself in the Mithril Sea, resuming her long-delayed oceanographic studies. But somehow, it just doesn't soothe her thoughts in the same way it might have once; she's seen too deeply into the truth of what's happening on this planet, and now she can't pretend ignorance any longer. And so it is that she's making her way through Vos -- through the very city where her Institute misadventure began -- to head back towards Iacon and the embassy once again. Vos may be high and shiny flier territory, but that is far above. Below, here, with the metal of Cybertron beneath treads, tires, and toes, it is a little more ... grounded. Hot Rod might not belong /there/, but he does okay blending in here. Except for the paint. /Always/ the paint. He follows a similar path, headed back toward Iacon...ish, or at least out of Vos in a north(west)erly direction. "Nautica! Hey." Blast Off has been spending almost all his time lately in Kaon... stuck in the hellish, uncultured slag pit that is that place. He's a wanted fugitive, on the run from the law, and Kaon has become his refuge. He's also flat broke and having to depend on the kindness of a friend to even have a place to stay. But the shuttleformer can only take so much. He's been deprived on anything cutlured, classy or civilized in SO, SO LONG... and he's been thinking of some of the fine wines he used to buy in Vos. Given that it's under Starscream's jursidiction, Vos isn't quite as unfriendly as, say, Iacon... but he still must be careful. He slips along a side alley in the city, trying to figure out a way to afford a glass of wine. Or at least BASK in its CLOSE PROXIMITY. Maybe OSMOSIS will work. SOMEHOW. The smile Nautica offers Hot Rod is genuine, even if the Camien seems a little subdued. "Hot Rod, hey. Good to see you." She pauses, perhaps trying to figure out what the socially appropriate way to handle this is in Cybertronian culture. How do you say 'thank you' to the person who brought reinforcements to help get you out of a subterranean Dark Science Torture Pit (with Bonus Vivisection Option), anyway? Does it require a handshake? A card? A life-debt? "How's the head?" asks Hot Rod, about as tactful as a brick. "Did you get Ratchet to take a look? I'm pretty sure that if it were me, he'd probably just take my head off and leave it like that, but he's actually really good. Just really bad with people." /Says Hot Rod/. There's no culture to be found over here, so you'd think that would just drive Blast Off away. Bet it doesn't. Nope, not at all. Sadly. For all involved, most likely. Blast Off makes his way along that alley, finally coming out towards the entrance. He stops and looks around cautiously... and spots Hot Rod and Nautica. Hey- he knows them. He's not sure he wants anyone he KNOWS to see HIM, though. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Honestly, I could have removed the device myself," Nautica notes to Hot Rod, a little ruefully. Apparently, you know, she's /good/ at things. "The problem was, it was a spy module; it showed him everything I said and did. If I had started to remove it, he would've noticed it and fried my cerebral module before I could finish. And I'm fond of my cerebral module." "Seems like a good one, I guess," Hot Rod compliments? It's sort of a compliment, anyway. Minus the 'I guess' and assuming he gives any value to head over heart. "So who was this jerk who planted it, anyway?" (Come on, Blast Off. Come this way. Maybe Nautica will say quantum again.) Blast Off might just keep walking by if it was just Hot Rod (though they did have that talk, and Shiftlock said something about Hot Rod helping her, so maybe he's not all bad). But Nautica... Nautica is a fellow space-capable craft. Ok, submarine, but still. So he steps out and slowly, self-consciously... makes his way towards the other two. Then sort of stands there, looking aloof, mainly because he's not sure what to actually SAY. "No one will believe me if I tell them," Nautica replies to Hot Rod a little sadly, shaking her head. "He's too well respected, and he plays at being pleasant and /sane/ far too well. Even I fell for it at first, until he realized I..." She trails off, considering her phrasing and shakes her head. "Until he realized I could be /useful/, put me in stasis lock, and cracked my head open to start rummaging around inside. It was..." She pauses, trailing off as she sees a familiar figure not too far away. No, /that/ can't be right; he's a fugitive! But maybe that was all dealt with and cleared up while she was in the Institute. Hot Rod leans forward with something like concern. "Does he still have fingers in your head? Possibly literally. If he does, we'll pull them out." He claps his hand on her shoulder with assumptive friendliness, but his manner is relatively serious, steady, and direct. "I don't care how well-respected he is, I'm pretty sure Chromia will kick his ass. And like I'm not going to believe you? I've seen that place! I saw what they've done, I know what we stopped. I'm not saying you need to go shouting his name, I think it's fair to know what kind of pleasant, sane, respected people I should definitely not walk down a dark alley with. Although, to be fair, I don't think I'd trust anyone respectable in a dark alley. Why would they even be there, huh?" ...speaking of, he glances back at her glance toward the alley like respectable people might be climbing out of the metalwork. But no -- it's just Blast Off. Blast Off has basically had his world turned upside down lately, or he would *not* be here, now, doing this. Not so much the dark alley, even. He's a sniper- dark alleys are kinda de rigueur. But this? Actually *approaching* people? Actually acting like he's interested? He... he... he has no idea what to do now. But he knows these people (kind of), and who knows... a classy space craft like Nautica can't be that bad to be around, right? Who knows, maybe she'll drip some culture his way? He's still sorta hoping that whole osmosis thing will work... somehow. The shuttleformer looks down the alley. Must look detached, aloof. Then back to the other two. "Oh." Maybe if he acts a bit surprised? Does this work? "I didn't notice you there." He then gives them a polite nod. "It's been awhile." He's still got the CLASS, he just knows it. Suddenly there is the dot of a red laser sight on the back of Blast Off's head. Oh he is in -someone's- crosshairs. Does anyone see it before the shot goes off?? Combat: Quantum hits Blast Off! "I don't /think/ so," Nautica replies to Hot Rod, though there's a slightly uneasy edge to the words nonetheless. "And if you really want to know... stay away from Pharma. I know he's one of the most respected doctors on the planet, but... he's actually /insane/. I watched him..." She trails off, shivering as one hand clasps the altmode shell on the other. After a moment, the Camien continues. "I watched him start cutting open a bot who was still alive, using a laser saw. A dissenter, a Decepticon, maybe an outlier... I never found out. I don't even know the mech's name. But Pharma did it to make me cooperate, to tell him what I'd done when I managed to sneak that warning out to Chromia. He said if I told him how I had disabled his device for that brief moment, he'd let the mech live. I finally caved and told him how I'd disabled it..." She shakes her head. "And then he dismembered the mech, cut him apart viciously, and /smiled/ at me as he did it. Said if I was going to lie to him, he could lie to me about sparing others." The quantum mechanic trails off, turning back to Blast Off as the shuttle greets her, evidently preparing to drop the topic. Unfortunately for Blast Off, that red dot is on the /back/ of his head, and he's facing them. It doesn't make for a good angle to spot. "Ratchet's way better," Hot Rod says despite having no idea at all who Pharma is. "I mean, he's cranky, but he's not -- uh." He actually falters as he tries to find a word to encompass the sheer amount of insane that her description suggests. "That is /messed up/. I'm sorry we couldn't reach you any sooner." He shuts up on the rest of it and gives Blast Off a slightly incredulous look. "That has to be the first time someone has ever said they didn't notice me." Blast Off is just picking up that something may be amiss on Nautica's end... something hush-hush and...uh, maybe this wasn't a good time to attempt to learn how to actually socialize with people?....And then the entire world seems to come rushing up towards him. Wait, no, that's just the ground suddenly in his face- because he just got smacked down into it. That, and his audios are RINGING. "Gah!" Dazed and taken completely by surprise, he lies on the ground, simply struggling to regain some sense of mental cohesiveness. Though he has just enough cerebro-cortex capacity- and millenia of Combaticon instincts- to already be bringing his ionic blaster out of subspace. If only the world would stop spinning and that infernal racket would cease. "At least a lot of us got out," Nautica replies to Hot Rod. And then suddenly the nearby shuttle is down on the ground, struggling as if to pull something from subspace. Even though the Camien engineer is no combatant, megacycles upon megacycles of constant paranoia within the Institute have taken their toll; she grabs her wrench to brandish it in a threatening manner, glancing around frantically for what just happened. Perhaps she's got just a touch of PTCD (Post-Traumatic Circuitry Disarray) after her recent experiences. Uh oh, there's a pool of energon the ground, forming up around his head...that -can't- be a good thing. Guess who it is this time, Blast Off? Drift? Nah, not Drift. Someone -else- who hates your struts--seems there's quite a few of them these days. Up on a mezzanine stands Quantum, the assassin who had sworn vengeance against the Combaticon for killing his partner, Sublight. When it rains, it really pours, doesn't it? Quantum could just shoot him again from where he stands, but he'd -much- rather watch the pain and fear on Blast Off's face--up close and personal--as he splatters the contents of the mech's cerebral circuitry against the building behind him. He floats jumps down, landing in front of the Combaticon and grabbing him by the neck to drag him up off of the ground and pin him against the wall of the building he'd just been standing on. And now a path blaster is being held right up against his head. "Didn't think you'd seen the last of me, did you?" Quantum sneers. Quick Hot Rod, be a hero! Hot Rod's response to Blast Off going down is almost /resigned/ as he looks past him for a flash of white armoring -- but failing to see that, he looks a little puzzled. It's reflex rather than act of will that has him stepping forward to move between Blast Off and the unseen threat. "What...? Dri--" He shuts the word off mid-syllable as Quantum makes his entrance. That is not Drift. "/You/." As Quantum has pulled on Blast Off, so Hot Rod pulls on him. The weapon he wields are a part of his arm rather than anything easily disarmed, but the /last/ time Quantum saw him they weren't much of a threat. "Hey, didn't think you'd seen the last of me, did you?" he mimics with a slightly manic glee. Blast Off is just starting to push himself up- the ground still spinning all around him- when someone grabs him by the neck and lifts him up. The shuttleformer starts struggling, but strength is NOT one of his better qualities. Fast? A sharpshooter? Deadly from a distance as he fires at enemies from above? Primus yes. But once someone's got him in close quarter combat... not so much. One good reason he doesn't like people getting close, after all. He starts pushing and twisting, but gets slammed against a wall instead. His vision is still swimming, but the face looking at him certainly doesn't look friendly. And it's vaguely familair, too... it's just that there are currently five of those faces. Slow down to one and he might even recognise the mech. "Get...OFF ME!!!" He snarls, still struggling... and then suddenly Hot Rod's there. All six of HIM, too. That's a lot of flames. Color Blast Off... surprised that Hot Rod's trying to help him. Or it seems that way, at least. Though Blast Off is a Combaticon warrior, and he's currently trying to help himself, too. His grip on his weapon remains strong, though it hangs by his side. He waits a tense moment, given that this attacker DOES have a gun in his face. One slight distraction- and Blast off will lift the gun up and fire. Nautica is not a warrior. Perhaps someday she will be -- she's definitely going to start getting combat training from Chromia, after her recent misadventure -- but not right now. What she is, however, is one of the best engineers on the planet, who does complex multidimensional temporospatial math as a way to /relax/ and cool down her brain from other pursuits. So perhaps it's not much surprise that her wrench might have, say, the ability to generate a short term stasis field, because... well, when you have a quantum wrench, it should have quite a variety of settings. And the Institute experience has given her plenty of motivation to come up with creative new defensive measures to add to it. This, no doubt, is why the little tangle of mechs engaged in fighting might feel as if the air is /starting/ to thicken around them, turning their movements slow as if they were trying to wade through some sort of gel that was becoming more and more solid by the moment, while the Camien stands there with the wrench pointed at the fracas. To judge from her facial expression, the response was more reflexive than anything; stop the combat before it can spill over and hurt /her/. Quantum turns slightly, just in time to see Hot Rod with guns to his head just as he has a gun to Blast Off's head. "Stay. Out of this." He demands threateningly, even as the stasis field seems to slow movement. He doesn't try to make any moves just yet, though. "Trust me, you -don't- want to get in my way." Maybe Hot Rod will take a hint and stand down. Clearly he doesn't know Hot Rod that well. "Nah." Hot Rod looks eager, sounds eager. He fairly bounces, or would, anyway, if Nautica's field weren't catching him up in invisible goo to hover poised on the toes of his feet. Beneath the flamed hood of his chest, he burns hot and ready. "I've been wanting to get one back over on you, anyway. I'd love to get--" He pauses, baffles at Nautica a moment, then looks back. "--in your way?" What is happening. Blast Off is just beginning to feel a sense of normalcy again. The world's stopped spinning, and five or six mechs are beginning to become one and ... one. Then- the world starts going strange again. The shuttleformer isn't struggling now, so he may not be slowed down as much by Nautica's statis field. But his limbs certainly feel heavy, and even holding onto his blaster takes greater effort than usual. Then his optics focus, and widen with recognition. Violet color turns almost pale and white with surprise- and not a little alarm. "YOU!" Now, heavy atmosphere or not, he starts trying to struggle again, at least momentarily. "You! Get... off! You...failed! Give it up already!" Slag... slag slag slag... There /were/ two. They attacked Blast Off, they tried to kill him- he killed one of THEM instead. And the powers that be have sent that guy after him again. A mech with a vendetta, most likely. The Combaticon's got to get away, get some distance, pull out his weapon and fire, but he needs time- and space! The shuttle shoves down a flare of panic and works to remain calm. "There will be /no more fighting/ without a damned good explanation," Nautica says, her tone fiercely determined as she takes a few steps towards the cluster of semi-frozen mechs. And if the wrench shakes just slightly in her outstretched hand, perhaps that's understandable. "I'm tired of watching mechs killed in front of me because someone else thought it was 'justifiable for the greater good'! /You/." This to Quantum, the mech she met the other day, but then she nods towards Blast Off. "If there's a bounty on him, isn't he supposed to be brought in /alive/?" Clearly, she's drawn the conclusion that Quantum is a bounty hunter. Quantum laughs at both Hot Rod and Nautica. "Ha! You, flame guy, are an idiot. And -you-." he turns toward Nautica. "Who ever said this was about a -bounty-? No, this is -personal-. And you better stay the hell out of it or you're gonna -regret- it. Now, shut off the stasis field, or I'm gonna pull this trigger. I already shot him in the head once, you think he's going to survive another one? I don't think so." Never mind that Hot Rod's got his guns to Quantum's head, too. Apparently he doesn't care. As long Blast Off -goes down-. "Uh, shooting this guy is a /great explanation/," Hot Rod insists. He doesn't know what an explanation is. He considers Nautica with new respect -- Nice science, nerd. Nice science. -- but does not draw back his arm. Blast Off has been waiting for Quantum to become distracted. When the other mech turns towards Nautica, that's the moment he's been looking for. He's a Combaticon- he's not going to simply play along forever and hope if he's just /nice and plays by the rules/, maybe this guy will /change his mind/ and they'll all be /friends/ and live happily ever after~~ lalalala~~. HA. No. Blast Off decides the moment has come to take action and put his "rescue" right where it belongs- inside his own hands. It's difficult- Nautica's statis field makes movement slower. But all it takes is a slight shift of his wrist, so that the weapon slowly points from down... to up. Quantum is *right there* so it doesn't take much. Blast off doesn't try to aim it- just points towards dead center- a place that's gonna incapacitate (he hopes) without being too obvious beforehand. Right... let him keep talking to Nautica and Hot Rod... easing his weapon up and 3...2...1...Fire. Combat: You hit Quantum! "I have been bullied, blackmailed, and had to watch friends be vivisected," Nautica says, her tone turning dark when Quantum threatens her. "I have been stasis-locked and had my head /taken apart/ and foreign tech put inside it to try and control me, to keep me in line and keep me prisoner, and that was just in the past decacycle or so. And /in the middle of that/, I still managed to learn to speak another language, hack into the memories of someone I strongly suspect predates most life on Cybertron, and -- incidentally -- build a stasis field generator into my wrench. And I am /fed up/." The Camien takes another step closer to the group, glaring at Quantum as she turns the stasis field up a notch. "So you want to threaten me, rather than just /explaining/? Well, I'm surprisingly /tired/ of being threatened. So if that's the way you want to play it... /bring it/. Otherwise, everyone /calm down/." Is she bluffing? She certainly seems rather angry. And then Blast Off raises his gun to try and fire anyway, likely re-focusing Nautica's ire on him in her next action. "Pfft! Oh -boo hoo-!" Quantum taunts. "I'm sorry, your life's been -tough-. Well! Welcome to the CLUB." he snarls. "I'm going to give this sorry slagger what he deserves, and -no one- is going to -stop- me." And then Blast Off's gun goes off. The shot slams him in the chest, sending him reeling backward. But astroseconds later, before he can fall back -too- far thanks to the stasis field, Quantum's weapon goes off as well. Combat: Quantum partially hits Blast Off for minor damage! Despite the fact that he is being effected by Nautica's field, Hot Rod /clearly/ seems to believe that he is not targeted by it. He meets this unloading of ire with a slow and widening grin. To her anger, he offers only encouraging delight: "Yeah, you tell them!" --then there's a shot at awful close range, and then /another one/, and then it should be Hot Rod's turn, but instead what he does is grab for their guns. "Stop it, before she goes all mad science on us!" Blast Off DOES hear something of Nautica's recent experiences, and there is a brief glance towards her. What the slag? More mechs- and femmes- running afoul of a government gone wrong? He has to wonder. He doesn't have a lot of time to wonder LONG though- right now he'd just like to focus on living to see tomorrow, kthanx. The Combaticon's shot succeeds in knocking Quantum away, and FINALLY... Blast Off has some space. Not MUCH... but he'll take anything right now. He quickly slides to the right... or, well, he would except for Nautica's statis field. So actually it's more of a slow groove. Quantum shoots as he falls away, but now that Blast off's got some space he's at least able to avoid major damage... the shot slices his side, leaving a burned smell but not causing the problems of that head shot. His head still rings a little by the way, but his helmet saved his life. He's about to fire again, combat instincts already a-go... when Hot Rod grabs at his gun. He manages to pull it back, staring at the mech. "Are you insane? This mech is an assassin... he was hired to kill me- now he's here to finish the job!" But there's just enough truth in Hot Rod's words (given this whole funny sluggish business) that Blast Off *does* have to wonder just what nautica is capable of. He glances over at her. It seems likely that Nautica's capable of quite a lot at the moment; she clearly has just a /little/ pent-up frustration to work through which she's been repressing for quite a while. Little acts of rebellion and trying to sabotage her captor's experiments have not done much to relieve that pressure. "That goes for you too," she informs the shuttleformer, turning the stasis field a little higher. "I am /perfectly capable/ of stasis-locking you with this, and then dragging you off to Prowl, and right now I am /sorely tempted/, because the way you're acting I'm starting to think you might actually be /guilty/ of the things he claimed you were! So think very carefully what you'll be convincing me of if you fire that gun again." The angry Camien turns her attention next to poor Quantum, examining the damage. Because for all that she's in a raging fury, she can't help but at least /try/ to fix things. Hopefully he's not too damaged... Quantum doesn't look good. After the weapon is fired, he lands in a heap on the ground, fuel leaking out around him in a large pool that sort of merges with the pool from Blast Off's head. It's getting -quite- messy around here, isn't it? "Come on, Blast Off." Hot Rod watches Nautica go to help Quantum with an expression that is mostly /frustrated/ and /annoyed/ and //ugh//. Because that guy /sucks/, oh my god, and now he's complicit in helping him. TERRIBLE!!!! "You need help. He shot -- twice. Nautica can take care of him--" He pauses, checking to see if that's right with a glance. "--so let's go get someone to help you before your processor falls out of your helm and Shiftlock yells at me for it." Blast Off blinks at Nautica's statement about statis-lock.. and Prowl. The shuttleformer freezes at that, his spark starting to sink a little. Given what he's experiencing right now as the statis field amps up again, he's not so sure she *can't* do just that, and isn't in a big hurry to find out. He stares at the femme for a lengthy moment then slowly begins leaning away, weapon lowering slightly. Yeah... this is the last time he tries socializing. With anyone. Ever. Yep. It obviously is a bad idea. Like, ever. "I... was simply defending myself. You SAW him attack me with NO provocation! He had a gun at my head and was about to shoot me again!" His head turns- not whirls, because that's kind of hard now- to look at Hot Rod. He prepares to fire off another protest at HIM, too... except again he's surprised. The shuttle blinks at the racer. "Help me?" He looks suspicious, then the mention of Shiftlock gets a flare of seeming recognition. He did help Shiftlock, so maybe... He tilts his head. Heh. He can somehow imagine Hot Rod not wanting to get Shift angry at him. It's not pretty, is it, Rod? He waves dismissively. "I... I am fine." No, he's not. There's still a huge crack in his helmet and he's leaking everywhere, but REALLY NO HE'S JUST FINE. A soft sigh from Nautica. "Primus, I'm going to be in /such/ trouble if I have to talk to anyone in authority again. And I know he attacked you, Blast Off, but you attacked him back. If you kill him, all it would do is give them a new charge to add to their accusations, a real one to add to the false ones." Because apparently, after everything she's been through, she can even more readily believe the Senate would have framed someone for murder. Then the femme lets the stasis field dispel, running a hand over her eyes as if exhausted. "Besides, like I said, I'm /tired/ of watching mechs kill each other. I want at least a megacycle with no assassinations, no outliers being vivisected so that their brain modules could be studied. And if I let him bleed out here, I'm no better than /them/." Evidently this is very important to her. Perhaps she needs to do /something/ to prove to herself that, whatever she might have been forced to do in the place she was, those actions don't mean that she's started down the path followed by those same researchers who held her captive. Even as Nautica is leaning over to try to help patch Quantum up, the assassin suddenly bolts up, his weapons emerging once more. "-False- ones?! Are you fragging me? They're not -false-! They're 100% -true-, he -murdered- Sublight!" The mech accuses, his voice shaking with rage. And he resumes his assault, firing again upon the Combaticon even as he is barely holding himself up off of the ground. Combat: Quantum partially hits Blast Off for minor damage! "TELL THEM, Blast Off!" he shouts. "GO ON TELL THEM WHAT YOU -DID-!" Hot Rod growls. As the field dispels, he grabs Blast Off to start yanking him away. "I am going to beat the next bleeding person who tells me that they are fine, so think really hard before saying it again." He glances back as Quantum fires -- too late, maybe, to stop the first shots at Blast Off, but putting himself between them after that. "We're going. Nautica--." He trails off, leaving implied her instructions. Which probably should include punching Quantum in the face, as a general suggestion. Blast Off gazes back at Nautica, listening as she explains... and wondering again just *what* she has experienced. "...You sound like you've... run afoul of the same kind of thing *I* did. What happened to you?" The field is released, and while Blast Off *would* like to simply finish the job... he leaves Quantum alone. He doesn't have Nautica's compassion. Centuries of combat training and experience- plus a general icy demeanor to go with the cold of space he feels most part of- see to that. But he's not bloodthirsty, either. The immediate threat is gone, though he can see it can easily return once Quantum is repaired.... but this isn't the time or place. "Suit yourself." He's just stepping back when suddenly it all goes to Pit anyway. Quantum is somehow UP and SHOOTING AGAIN. The shot strikes a plate of armor on his shoulder- nothing massive, but enough for the shuttleformer's optics to begin blazing purple again and swing his weapon up. Slag this all- he's not going to stand around and let- ... and then Hot Rod is standing in his way. He does a bit of a double-take. "Get OUT of my way, Hot Rod!" He snaps back to Quantum, "Tell them WHAT? That you and your friend were sent to KILL ME? And I proved to be more trouble than you were expecting?!" He doesn't fire, however... though he still points the weapon up. With Hot Rod in the way. "You were more..." Nautica trails off, staring at Blast Off in shell-shocked silence. All this time, she's allowed herself to believe his earlier claims of innocence. All this time, she's allowed herself to believe that it was because he had crossed the Senate -- had seen something he shouldn't have -- that he was seemingly targeted. She insisted to Prowl, to Ultra Magnus, that it was a misunderstanding. But here she has it in his own words: a confession of his guilt. Quantum glares daggers at Blast Off, scrambling to his feet despite his injuries--fueled by pure rage. "Kill you? Who ever said -that-?! You exploited our client's equipment for your -own- personal gain, and you expected them to just...let it fly?! You're even more -stupid- than I originally -thought-. They had the -right- to appropriate the Ezero from you, but YOU refused to reliquish it! But it doesn't even -matter-, does it? The fact remains that YOU killed Sublight, and you KNOW it! And you're going to -pay- dearly for it!" He growls, but as much as he wants to just finish Blast Off off for good right here and now, he isn't exactly in the shape to do so, not with a hole in his midsection. Instead, he just glowers furiously at the Combaticon for a few more moments. "This -isn't- over. I -will- destroy you." And then he transformers and shoots off into the sky, his FTL engines taking him out of sight almost immediately. "Nope!" Hot Rod just starts pushing. "Don't care!" He apparently also does not care that Blast Off has his guns up, despite ... being in the way. He pushes right into them and gets in Blast Off's face. "All I have to do is push and everything inside your head will fall out the back, anyway, so don't try it." It's an exaggeration, sure, but is it much of one?? Quantum transforming puts rather an end to the confrontation, allowing Hot Rod to step back. Blast Off blinks at Nautica's apparent shock. "What?" He's not sure what he just said that might cause that reaction. As for guilt, the shuttleformer sees none in the act of defending onself from those who are trying to kill you- and indeed, Blast Off very nearly was killed that day. Shoved into planetary reentry WITH damaged heat shields by Sublight, that ALONE nearly killed him... and when Sublight went in for the final blow... well, somehow Blast Off's sheer desperation combined with the reflexes of a soldier saved him. One close shot that struck just the right place- and Sublight was dead. Then Quantum spouts off. The Combaticon's optics narrow, but with Nautica's reaction he's back to thinking maybe saying NOTHING would be best. So he simply watches as Quantum rages- and flies away. THEN SUDDENLY HOT ROD IN HIS FACE. "HEY!!!" The shuttleformer steps back, startled... though he still doesn't fire. He just glares, flustered... and takes another step back. "That's it... I'm leaving." And never socializing again, ever. EVER. Maybe it's still some vague regard for the mech she shared a drink with at Maccadam's that stays Nautica's hand and lets Blast Off leave. Or maybe she doesn't trust the powers-that-be any longer, or perhaps she simply doesn't think she could take him in a fight on her own one-on-one without the element of surprise. Whatever the reason, she watches him go in silence as she slips the quantum wrench back into its holster at her side. Category:NC Institute